Lizzie's POV:

After Draco and I had left our little Sammy in the trustworthy hands of the Gryffindors that night, the population inside the Room began to grow and our class sizes began to decline. More and more students, Slytherins and Gryffindors and Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs alike, who had fallen victim to the Carrows were hiding away with Neville and Ginny. All were getting along due to their common despise for the brother and sister who had their feet on the castle's throat.

Aberforth had set up a system to send food with someone each day. He mostly sent food that didn't perish fast like most fruit and vegetables did. He sent potatoes that someone could boil, dried meats that lasted for ages and filled one up rather quickly, pasta and beans that could also be boiled, and anything that he could spare. We were all eternally grateful for the man, sending many thanks to him with the person who retrieved the food. We built up our store of it and rationed it out so as to last us for as long as needed.

There were times that Aberforth also came through the tunnel after the Hogshead had closed for the day and played Exploding Snap or chess with someone, sometimes telling stories of our Dumbledore when he was younger, or bringing items that he thought would entertain those who always stayed in the room throughout the day and had nothing to do, like books or board games that he found around his home.

Snape and the Carrows obviously noticed that the students were disappearing and tried their best to find and stop them. Snape made speeches at meals; the Carrows patrolled the corridors and tried to force the other professors to help track the students down; they tried to convince the portraits to tell them what they knew, but the paintings were on our side and said nothing of our whereabouts; and they threatened the students that still remained in the classes that horrible things would await them if they were to be found to be withholding information.

Draco and I regularly checked the dungeons and other abandoned areas of the school for chained up students, freeing them and taking them to the Room of Requirement where they were welcomed with open arms and a hammock ready for them to occupy.

The Carrows never suspected us as the perpetrators who were freeing the victims of their temper because we played our part well. We fed them false information about the location of the students who had gone missing. For example, last Tuesday, Draco had "seen Neville sneaking down to the kitchens to retrieve food", when in actuality, Neville had been tucked away in the Room of Requirement playing chess with a Ravenclaw.

Everything was going perfectly until a sixth year Hufflepuff named Jamie Montgomery was caught hauling her trunk up a staircase. The daft thing hadn't thought of shrinking it to make her migration to the Room less conspicuous and easier.

Amycus had caught her and instantly knew that she was heading towards the hideout. So he snatched her up and dragged her down to the dungeons where she was chained up and questioned.

Now, when I say 'questioned', I don't mean he sat down across from Jamie and politely asked her questions over a spot of tea and biscuits punctuated with jokes and laughs. Amycus tortured the poor thing until her screams were heard all the way in the Ravenclaw Tower.

At first, he used the Cruciatus curse until Jamie passed out from the pain, and then woke her up just to use a knife to slice her skin open over and over again, making sure that she wouldn't die from where she was cut. He cut her left thumb off and she still remained loyal. As she bled from her hand where a finger was now missing and sobbed from the pain, Amycus fastened her chains to the ceiling so she was hanging from her wrists and left her there for days, not feeding her as the blood slid down her arm and her body began to shut down from the pain and lack of care. When Jamie, the brave little soul she was, still refused to give up any information about where she was going with her trunk, Amycus used his wand to burn Jamie, leaving her still hanging from the ceiling and then using Incendio to light her robes aflame, demanding to know where the missing student were hiding. She screamed until her voice was gone as she experienced one of the worst pains imaginable.

This went on for ages before Amycus would leave Jamie alone in the dungeon long enough for Draco and I to free her. When we got her to the Room of Requirement, everyone pitched in healing spell ideas to heal the traumatized Jamie, who only got out of her hammock to use the toilet, and even that made her break down in sobs of pain to the point of someone being forced to levitate her back to her hammack to limit any movement.

Draco and I tried to contact St. Mungo's, but since the students had started disappearing, every single piece of mail, incoming and outgoing, was being read, and all floo channels had been closed. To make things worse, Madam Pomfrey had been fired for being a muggleborn. We couldn't figure out how to get Jamie the help she needed without disclosing our secrets. All we could do was brew the potions that we had the skill and materials for and cast the few healing spells that we knew to try to stop infection and pain.

Her skin was blackened in the areas that her robes had burned the hottest and the skin was peeling away in flakes. We applied a balm that a Ravenclaw named Mikey Levenhagen had made to these areas as often as we could. The area where her left thumb had been was bandaged with wrappings that were changed three times a day. We tried our best our best to heal the cuts that had been inflicted by Amycus' knife, but some were so serious that we had to treat them the same as the wound on her hand.

Everyone helped poor Jamie in some way; whether it was helping her eat her food or drink her water, or changing her bandages or applying the burn balm, or reading her a novel, or just keeping her company because everyone was in awe of her strength. She had been tortured for days on end and hadn't given up one sliver of information about the hiding spot.

Everyone looked up to her

-----

"Hey Neville?" I asked one day that I was visiting the hideaways in the Room of Requirement, sitting down beside him. He was off in a corner, away from the general crowd that was watching an intense game of Exploding Snap between Seamus and Draco.

"Hey, Liz. What can I do for you?" he smiled, closing the novel that he had been reading.

"Why haven't I seen Luna?" I questioned. "I figured that she would be one of the first people that you told about this place, but I haven't seen her anywhere, and, come to think of it, I hadn't seen her before you guys started hiding in here."

The smile that had been on his face slowly slid away, being replaced with sad eyes that didn't want to answer my question. "She was taken," he muttered under his breath.

"What? Who took her? And where? Why?" I asked, horrified that someone would want to harm such a gentle and kind girl.

"They took her from the Hogwarts Express. I don't know why and I don't know where," he replied, looking at his hands, which rested on his lap.

"Oh, Merlin," I gasped, my eyes tearing up.

"I know," he whispered.

I stood up and ran into the closest bathroom, locking the door and silencing the room behind me. Leaning over the sink, I felt the tears began to trail down my cheeks and drip onto the porcelain below.

Luna. Who's gentle company could take anyone's day and make it instantly better with her odd personality that everyone loved. She just had that kind of air about her. A calming presence. And someone had taken her. For all I knew, she could be dead.

I hadn't even known her that well but she was the first student that I knew personally that the war had wrapped its thorny tendrils around and taken away from me.

And I worked for the man who had had her taken.

The man who had taken other children like Luna from their homes and their friends, or had taken their parents, or their little siblings.

The man- no. The monster who killed innocent people just for not being a full blood wizard.

The monster who had forced us into hiding in the castle that had once been a utopia.

The monster who's minion had tortured Jamie Montgomery so harshly that she'll never look or be the same.

The monster who had taken his name and carved it into my forearm in the form of a snake and skull, binding my fate to his.

The monster who, despite the ending of this war, has taken my future and sent it up in flames.

The monster who did the same to the man I love.

The monster who killed my mum.

My sobs were so loud in my ears that I almost didn't hear the knocking on the door. "Lizzie?" a familiar voice called from the other side of the door. "Liz, are you in there?"

Hearing Draco's worried voice only made me sob harder.

"Lizzie, let me in," he called more urgently, jiggling the door knob.

Voldemort had kidnapped Luna.

"Come on, Liz. Don't make me force my way in."

Voldemort had kidnapped Luna and killed my mum. Luna might be dead too.

She was innocent.

She was sweet.

She could be dead.

The lock clicked open and Draco slid in, locking the door behind him. "What's wrong, love?" he asked gently, walking up to me and placing a hand on my back.

"He- he- t-" I heaved, trying to tell him about Luna. I couldn't get one word out around my sobs.

"Shhh, slow down," he whispered, rubbing my back. "Try again. What's wrong?" I could see his blonde hair out of the corner of my eye, blurred from the tears.

"He- I- Dra- Luna."

"What about Luna? Come on, love. Breathe," he coaxed gently.

"I- I- can't- not-"

"Okay, that's alright. Let go of the sink. We can sit down," he hummed calmly, placing a hand on mine.

But my fingers were clamped down too hard on the edge of the sink. I couldn't unclamp them.

"I- can't- Drac- no-"

"It's okay. Just try to relax your hands," he muttered, trying to gently pry my fingers from the sink. His fingers worked at mine and I continued to sob uncontrollably until he got my fingers off of the sink. "Alright, come here." He encased me in his arms and slowly slid down to the floor. "It's okay, love. Shhhh. I'm right here."

I curled up into a ball and rested my head on his chest as he rocked me back and forth, rubbed a hand up and down my back, and whispered soothing words until my sobs had been decreased to hiccups and quiet tears.

"He took Luna," I told him, occasionally interrupted by hiccups. "You-Know-Who. He took- Luna. That's what hap-pened on the train. I didn't- I didn't even know her- that well. But it- it hurts."

"It's okay. Luna is tough. I'm sure she is just fine," Draco whispered into my hair.

"That's not it. He- he's ruined our future. When this- war is over, no matter- no matter who wins, life will be hell. If- if he wins... I don't- I don't even want- to think about that- that hell. But if- if Harry wins- we'll always be looked at- as Death Eaters. We will- always be Death Eaters. We'll be- be treated like criminals. And- and I don't blame them. We are- we are criminals. We almost killed- Dumble-dore. He's dead because- because we let them into- the castle." I lifted my head and looked into Draco's silver eyes. "Draco, if we- if we hadn't let them in. Dumble-dore would be alive and- and he would have fought- You-Know-Who and Neville and- and Ginny and little Sam- Sammy wouldn't have to be- hiding for their lives. We're the cause of- of this war. We're the cause of- Jamie's disfiguration. We're the cause of- of so many deaths. What- what have we done?"

"Lizzie Samuels, you listen to me," he said sternly, shifting so that he was looking at me straight on. "We made mistakes. But you know what? They weren't our mistakes. Three horrible men dragged us into a mess we wanted no part of and forced us to do something that will haunt us forever. And so what if people think we are criminals? Since when have you cared what people think about you? We know the truth about what happened. That's all that matters. We know the truth. So do those people out there in that room. They know that we were forced into doing the unforgivable by wand point and they still care for us."

"B-but Dumbledore," I hiccupped, lips trembling.

"Yes, a great man died, but somewhere out there is another man. This man has unruly, black hair; insufferably horrid glasses that don't look at all flattering on him; an intolerable personality that makes me want to hex him to the moon; and a scar that was carved into his forehead by a beast who has changed so many lives for the worse. But this man with curly hair, round glasses, and a lightning shaped scar will come back from wherever he is and kill the beast, saving us all."

"Do you really- believe that?" Draco brought a hand up to my cheek and wiped my tears away.

"As much as he bothers me, I do believe that Harry is the Chosen One, and that he will win this war," Draco affirmed.

"Thank you, Dra- Draco," I whispered, leaning my head on his chest once again.

"My pleasure," he breathed, kissing my head.